Rabbi's Message

Payrush LaParashah: Comment on the Weekly Torah Portion

The portion of Toledot (Genesis 27:28-28:9) is read this Saturday, November 30^th.

27:38 And Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing. Father! Bless me too, Father!” And Esau wept aloud. (39) And his father Isaac answered, saying to him, “See your abode shall enjoy the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven above. (4) Yet by your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restive, you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

27:39 See your abode shall enjoy the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven above [JPS]/Your home shall be far from the earth’s riches and the dew of heaven above. [Anchor Bible] Hebrew: Heenay Mishmahnay HaAretz… FAR FROM. The preposition in Heb. Is mi(n), the same one that was used in the corresponding portion of vs. 29, in a positive sense, which is but another nuance of the common “from, away from.” To treat both passages on a part, implying that Esau too was promised agricultural wealth, would undermine the whole tenor of the context. But to understand the particle as “without…” with many older translators and most moderns, is not sanctioned by established Heb. Usage. To be sure the style remains awkward, quite aside from the preposition. Yet some such meaning as the one here reflected is clearly indicated: Edom is doomed to privation, yet his day will come. (E.A. Speiser, The Anchor Bible: Genesis. Ephraim Avigdor Speiser was born in 1902 in Skalat, Galicia, then part of Austrian Poland—today part of Ukraine. Educated in Lwow [or Lvov, now Lviv, Ukraine], he came to the US in 1920, earned a M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1923 and a doctorate from Dropsie College in 1924. After 2 years as a research fellow in Semitics at Penn, Speiser won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study the remains of the ancient Mitanni and Hurrians in northern Mesopotamia. There in northern Iraq, in 1927 he discovered the Tepe Gawra ("Great Mound"), one of the world's earliest cradles of civilization. In 1928 he was appointed assistant professor of Semitics at the University of Pennsylvania and became a full professor in 1931. He was field director of the Joint Excavation of the ASOR and the University Museum, 1930–1932, 1936–1937, undertaking excavations in Tepe Gawra and Tell Billa. He also translated the Hurrian legal texts found at Nuzi. During World War II, Speiser was chief of the Office of Strategic Services’ Near East Section of the Research and Analysis Branch in Washington. After the war he returned to Penn, where he was chair of the Oriental Studies Department from 1947 to his death in 1965. His commentary on Genesis was the inaugural volume of the Anchor Bible Series, appearing in 1965. He served as one of the editors of the Jewish Publication Society translation of the Torah and was president of the American Oriental Society. For many years his Introduction to Hurrian, first issued in 1941, was the standard text used in classes in Semitics. He also wrote The United States and the Near East, which was first published in 1947. In 1967, some of his essays were collected and published posthumously by his student Professor Moshe Greenberg.)

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Questions for Toledot 5785 (Genesis 27:28-28:9)

1. What seems odd in the blessing Jacob receives. (Hint: Think about what Jacob will do for a living.)
2. Are there elements of a “banging door” comedy here? How long would it take to prepare from scratch a dish of fresh venison?
3. What did Esau say or do that caused Isaac to wonder whether it was indeed Esau?
4. What in the text makes Esau a sympathetic figure?
5. Is it conceivable that Jacob had only one blessing?
6. How is the blessing that Esau receives like the one given to Jacob? Is it a forecast or a description of Israel and Edom’s relationship at some time during the monarchy?
7. Esau states that he will get his revenge after the days of mourning for Isaac are past. How many years will pass before Isaac dies? (He dies at the age of 180.) How old were the twins at the time of the blessings? At the time of Isaac’s death?
8. What was Rebekah’s plan for Jacob. Why does she assume that Jacob will be safe with her brother?
9. Is the story line about Isaac blessing Jacob to find a bride off in Mesopotamia an alternate story of why Jacob ends up with Laban?
10. How is the blessing given to Jacob in chapter 28 different from the earlier blessing in chapter 27?
11. How many wives did Esau marry? Is there any archeological evidence that the Hittites, whose center was in modern-day Turkey, have an outpost in the land of Israel?

Questions for the Haftorah (Machar Chodesh, I Samuel 20:18-42)

1. Explain Jonathan’s plan to tell David whether the coast was clear or not. Why the necessity for the plan? What had David done to merit Saul’s wrath?
2. How plausible was Jonathan’s explanation for David’s absence?
3. Was Saul correct in asserting that Jonathan was favoring David at the cost of his own kingship?
4. The last word in verse 41 Higdeal is translated as “longer.” It is from the root Gimmel, Daled, Lammed, meaning to grow, to enlarge. Is a homo-erotic reading of this passage possible?
5. Did David abide by the pact Jonathan made with him?